Hunt: UK Internet fastest in Europe by 2015

The UK will have the fastest broadband of any major European country by 2015, according to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

In a speech at Google’s Campus building in London, he reiterated that he wanted to bring high-speed broadband – which he defined as greater than 24 Megabits per second – to more than 90 per cent of the country.

Hunt’s comments followed heavy criticism last month from a Lords committee which said plans were too focused on speed. But Hunt defended his focus on higher speeds, which he said would be needed in order for the UK’s network to remain competitive with others in Europe.

“We simply will not have a competitive broadband network unless we recognise the massive growth in demand for higher and higher speeds,” Hunt said. “Today’s superfast is tomorrow’s superslow. Just as the last government was wrong to hang its hat on 2Mbps speeds, we must never fall into the trap of saying any speed is ‘enough’.”

He added the government had begun looking at the ways it will allocate part of a £300 million slice of the television license fee to provide high-speed broadband to a greater number than the existing target of 90 per cent of the country.